17U Run-Through: ECI Prospects
The ECI Prospects kick off their season this weekend in St. Cloud at the Comets Shootout. How is the team looking heading into their first event? PHD breaks it down.
The Roster. The ECI roster of ten has half of their guys back from last year’s team that won 19 games and finished the season strong. The team has nine players from North Dakota and one from Minnesota (Moorhead). Six of the players are from Class A in North Dakota, one from big school Minnesota, and three from Class B in North Dakota.
The Returning Players. Five-foot-9 Dawson Douty of Jamestown, six-foot Treyton Mattern of Bismarck Century, 6-foot-1 guard Christian Kuntz of West Fargo Sheyenne, 6-foot-5 wing Maleeck Harden of Moorhead (MN), and 6-foot-4 Isaac Undlin of Mohall are the five returning players from last year’s ECI team. Six-foot-2 guard Joe Jahner of Bismarck finished last year in the ECI team and now is on the roster so you could say a sixth talent from last year’s ECI team has returned.
Kuntz was a second team All State Class A player who scored 18.1 points per game pairing with Zach Westphal to form a lethal backcourt pair that led the team to state. Kuntz had the highest assist per game average in the EDC plus made 40 percent of his threes and over half his field goals as a guard. Trey Mattern scored a dozen a game for the state champs at Bismarck Century, was a top ten assist guy in Class A, and handled a lot of the ball pressure and handling duties. Mattern and Kuntz will be an outstanding pair.
Another guard is Dawson Douty, a reserve from Jamestown. Douty scored just over six a game for the Jays and shot over 40 percent form the arc. Maleeck Harden is a versatile wing from Moorhead who gave his team 13.7 points and 6.6 rebounds a game. Isaac Undlin is one of North Dakota’s top 2019 prospects because of his physical gifts and versatile abilities.
New Additions. Joe Jahner scored 12.3 points per contest while grabbing 4.5 rebounds a game with one assists a contest. Jahner shot 41 percent from the floor and just under a third (33 percent) from the arc this year. Joe finished strong with ECI last year and is hoping to strong this weekend in St. Cloud.
Another big addition to the team is 6-foot-6 Jamestown forward Mason Walters. Mason was a top four scorer in the WDA at 16.3 points per game, a top three rebounder grabbing over eight a contest, and one of the top two shot blockers in the WDA, plus he led Jamestown to state. Six-foot-1 Keaton Hoeg of Fargo North is another talented guard for ECI. He gave North 14 points, five rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.
The other two new additions 6-foot-6 Beau Feltman of Grafton and 6-foot-4 Tyrell Rodriguez of Oak Grove. Feldman was often the second scoring option for a strong Grafton squad scoring in double figures regularly. Tyrell put up 15.3 points and 7.3 rebounds a game this year for Oak Grove plus almost two blocks a contest.
The Schedule. ECI has an eight weekend schedule that start this weekend in St. Cloud (and will also include another late June event in St. Cloud). ECI will host their event the ECI Spring Preview the weekend of May 19th (for information email info@ecibasketball.com) and they will play in the three SPTS events in May. Finally, in July, ECI will complete in the Summer Slam event in Sioux Falls, and the Summer Slam event in Wisconsin hosted by NY2LA.